me to regulate my conduct
by such caprices. I shall still continue to preserve the same respect
toward M. Noirtier; I will suffer, without complaint, the pecuniary
deprivation to which he has subjected me; but I shall remain firm in
my determination, and the world shall see which party has reason on
his side. Consequently I shall marry my daughter to the Baron Franz
d'Epinay, because I consider it would be a proper and eligible match
for her to make, and, in short, because I choose to bestow my daughter's
hand on whomever I please."

"What?" said the count, the approbation of whose eye Villefort had
frequently solicited during this speech. "What? Do you say that M.
Noirtier disinherits Mademoiselle de Villefort because she is going to
marry M. le Baron Franz d'Epinay?"

"Yes, sir, that is the reason," said Villefort, shrugging his shoulders.

"The apparent reason, at least," said Madame de Villefort.

"The real reason, madame, I can assure you; I know my father."

"But I want to know in what way M. d'Epinay can have displeased your
father more than any other person?"

"I believe I know M. Franz d'Epinay," said the count; "is he not the son
of General de Quesnel, who was created Baron d'Epinay by Charles X.?"

"The same," said Villefort.

"Well, but he is a charming young man, according to my ideas."

"He is, which makes me believe that it is only an excuse of M. Noirtier
to prevent his granddaughter marrying; old men are always so selfish in
their affection," said Madame de Villefort.

"But," said Monte Cristo "do you not know any cause for this hatred?"

"Ah, ma foi, who is to know?"

"Perhaps it is some political difference?"

"My father and the Baron d'Epinay lived in the stormy times of which I
only saw the ending," said Villefort.

"Was not your father a Bonapartist?" asked Monte Cristo; "I think I
remember that you told me something of that kind."

"My father has been a Jacobin more than anything else," said Villefort,
carried by his emotion beyond the bounds of prudence; "and the senator's
robe, which Napoleon cast on his shoulders, only served to disguise the
old man without in any degree changing him. When my father conspired,
it was not for the emperor, it was against the Bourbons; for M. Noirtier
possessed this peculiarity, he never projected any Utopian schemes which
could never be realized, but strove for possibilities, and he applied
to the realization of these possibilities the terrible